Invasion from the Animal Kingdom

Is there anything cuter than grandchildren decked out for Halloween?

Weight Loss Journey

I've forgotten to post my progress the last couple weeks. Really - I didn't do it on purpose - even though it wasn't all that great. Two weeks ago I was still feeling lousy from the cold so I was eating comfort foods. My weight had gone down a little because I wasn't eating much. By weigh in day it was back and more - up 1.4 pounds - ugh! Last week I was back to eating healthy - for the most part - but lost only .4 of that added weight.

This week I'm happy to report I'm down another 1.2 pounds. This puts me .2 pounds under where I was a couple weeks ago for a total loss of 24.2 pounds. Now if only I could get back to exercising I'm sure I'd do even better! Won't happen until next week at the earliest - not much exercising happens at Quilt Camp lol! I just hope I can manage to eat well - I sure hope the caterer has some healthy options at each meal!

Signature Blocks

I love signature blocks. When I participate in a block exchange I always want the maker of each block to sign the block somewhere. Years later, when I look at the quilt I can remember happy times with those people and what great friends they were - or still are. The reality of this world is that people move - some move a lot! - and no matter how well you think you might remember who made each block it's easy to forget once the years go by. I have a few quilts made from unsigned blocks, and by now I have no idea who made which blocks.

At the beginning of this year there were quite a few sets of friendship and signature blocks on my UFO list. Yesterday, as I was putting a set together into another finished flimsy, it occurred to me that these quilts would make a great topic for a post.

Here is my latest finished top - I sewed the final borders on last night before going to bed. Seventeen of these blocks were made by my friends in my little guild - North Star Quilters - as a thank you for serving as president for 2007. The blocks are always simple stars, as our logo is a sawtooth star. I love this tradition - which reminds me, I still need to make a block for this year's president! She wants jewel tones - I'll have to do some hunting to find those in my stash!

These blocks are from a world-wide blogging exchange I participated in during 2006. It was organized by an Australian blogger who has - unfortunately - stopped blogging. There were about three dozen of us participating. It's so much fun to look at the blocks to see where they all originated. The 36 I received were perfect for this small top. My block made 37 - so I put it (actually "them" as there were four of mine left over) on the back of the quilt. I will always remember what I was doing while sewing these blocks together - watching election returns which marked a huge event in our national history. I did take time to whoop in jubilation a minute after our local polls closed and CNN projected Barack Obama as the president elect. I'll never forget how marvelous I felt, and this quilt will be a wonderful reminder.

Three more sets of friendship blocks have finally been sewn into one finished flimsy and several other items - I've talked about those in recent posts here and here and here. The only signed blocks are in the Christmas pillows - I've forgotten who made many of the blocks in the other two exchanges. I know who was in the group at the time, but can't remember who made which blocks. I sure wish they'd been signed too!

Another signature quilt was among those I finished during my August finishing frenzy. I love how it turned out!

Still another set of signed friendship blocks became this flimsy. It has been pinned onto the longarm since August. Hopefully I can get it quilted sometime this month so I can display it for even a few days before fall vanishes and Christmas decorations fill the house. Besides, I can't quilt Lily's bear or any customer quilts until it is finished!

I have still another finished flimsy done with blocks from this group that is waiting for quilting. When we decided to exchange double nine patch blocks it never occurred to us how large the quilt top would become! Apparently I don't have a picture of the finished top - just take my word for it when I tell you it also has borders. I will do a simple all over pattern on this one, so I should be able to finish it before the end of the year.

Last but not least are two more sets of blocks made by the same ladies that made the previous two quilts. I'm going to put these together in the same quilt - turning the tiny blocks into centers of more log cabin blocks. This is one of the projects I'm taking to Quilt Camp this weekend, so hopefully I can show you another finished top early next week. I have light and dark strips cut and sorted just waiting for me to start working on them.

This leaves me with only one unfinished set of friendship blocks - a group of blocks from an around-the-block round robin. These, too, aren't signed. I need to make a chart of who made which blocks before I forget. I've put these up on my design wall so my mind can start coming up with ideas. I know I'll do a bunch of rearranging, as well as make more blocks to add to the mix. Stay tuned - I'm determined to get this one to the finished flimsy stage by the end of this year so I can cross off every project on that sidebar list!

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Gratitudes:

1. Wonderful fall colors everywhere
2. Hot oatmeal for breakfast
3. Savory roasted vegetables - pumpkin, parsnips, sweet onion, peppers, squash
4. 94% fat free Jiffy Pop Kettle Corn
5. A diminishing UFO list

Exercising your right as an American

I hope everyone has already voted or plans to vote today. So many people take this for granted when it's not all that far into the past that women weren't allowed to vote. I've had CNN on the TV for weeks now - I don't remember being this wrapped up in a campaign for years. Thank goodness for quilting so I will still have something to do tomorrow.

Washington state went totally to mail-in ballots a few years ago. I'm so glad they did this. No waiting in lines, as well as being able to take as much time as needed to vote as the ballots arrive a few weeks early. There are no polling places - just a couple precinct workers sitting beside a locked ballot box so people can drop off their ballots if they'd like to. Nevertheless, it's so exciting to see so many people all over the country waiting in line to vote - and to know so many are voting who never have before.

If you've not voted yet please do so - it's never been as important to do so as it is this year.

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Gratitudes:
1. The freedoms and rights we enjoy as Americans
2. The right to disagree with the government without danger
3. The amazingly peaceful way our country changes leaders
4. Television coverage of every minute of the race

If only they'd hold a war and nobody came.

Pay It Forward!

I've read so many "Pay It Forward" posts and seen so many wonderful gifts, and I've always wanted to participate. However, I felt I couldn't commit until I had a much better handle on all my UFO's. I'm not sure what that magic spot looks like, but I must have reached it because this morning I committed myself to playing on Julie's blog.

Here's how it works. I am one of the three people who committed, which means Julie will send me a hand made gift sometime in the next 6-12 months (or sooner if she can). In turn I promise to send a hand made gift sometime in the next 6-12 months to the first three people who comment and commit themselves to playing. In order to play you must post it to your own blog, and promise to send handmade gifts to the first three people who leave you a comment committing themselves to playing along. (I sure hope that makes sense - if it doesn't and you're not sure how this works just ask me.)

So - who of you would like to receive a handmade gift from me? I'm eager to see who wants to play!

Finn's Challenge

Back in September, in this post, I accepted a New Year's Eve challenge from Finn. I set a goal of finishing 6 projects before the calendar changed to 2009. Up until now I've not completed a single project - instead making progress on several. The specifics of the challenge were left up to each of us to decide for ourselves - what defined a UFO and what constituted a finish. They could be any sort of UFO's - they didn't have to be quilty. So, with that in mind, I'm counting several finishes for the New Year's Eve challenge.

1. Ghoulies and Ghosties pillow - stitchery done in 1965, originally intended for framing

2. Thanksgiving cross stitch pillow - stitchery done in the late 70's or very early 80's. Once I started quilting in earnest I stopped doing cross stitch.

3. Four springtime pillows, made from four friendship blocks, given to me in 1992 and originally intended for a quilt.

4. Three Christmas pillows, made from six friendship blocks, given to me in 1995 and originally intended for a wall hanging.

Thanks so much for the challenge, Finn - I'm sure these wouldn't have been completed without it!

Done!

Pillow production has drawn to a close, and I've crossed one more item of my list of UFO's. The six Christmas friendship blocks are now three completed pillows, ready to grace the couch and entry bench come December. All the blocks are signed and dated - 1995. What a great feeling to cross another truly ancient UFO off my list! I also finished the two stitchery pillows after a morning trip to Fabric Depot for 12" pillow forms.

The Ghoulies and Ghosties stitchery is dated 1965 and has the initials of my maiden name stitched before the date! It will go on our bed once the fall quilt comes off and the blue quilt goes back on in December. The pilgrim pillow is all ready to put on the entry bench the day after Halloween when the rest of the Thanksgiving decorations replace the witches, jack-o-lanterns and ghosts.

With these finishes I very happily crossed off another of my 2008 goals - the number of UFO's that are still in the unfinished top stage has dropped below ten - eight total to be exact. And seven of those eight should be easily finished to the flimsy stage, so I hope to have only one left by the end of the year. I'm not sure what has helped me the most - I'd love to say it was the goal setting I did at the beginning of the year, but I'm pretty sure retirement had a great deal more to do with it LOL!

Pillow Talk

I spent today making more pillows - more fairly mindless activity. The name for this post just jumped into my mind as I was sewing - I grew up watching so many Doris Day movies though this is the first time I've thought of one in years LOL!

The last spring friendship block just sat in my mind after I finished the others yesterday, and this morning it told me it wanted to be a pillow also. I found 12" x 16" pillow forms on the Internet - I've never seen them in the store, so I may have to make my own pillow form for this last pillow. This gives me two spring pillows for the couch and two more for the bench in the entry.

This "Ghoulies and Ghosties" pillow is made from the oldest UFO I had, of that I'm sure. I made it when I was a senior in high school - the date is stitched in the bottom corner. I remember using a magnifying glass to see an ad in the back of a McCallls Needlework and Crafts magazine well enough that I could copy it onto graph paper. I transferred it to fabric with carbon paper, as I'd not yet learned about Aida cloth and counted cross stitch. I've had it all these years - thinking some day I'd have it framed. I decided it would make a great pillow, and a pillow form would be much cheaper than custom framing!

I don't remember when I did this pilgrim cross stitch. I'm guessing it was the late 70's or very early 80's, as that's when I was doing a great deal of cross stitch. Just another project that sat in a drawer for years and years waiting for me to finish it. It'll look great on the bench in the entry this November.

I snapped this picture before I started sewing this morning after I pulled all the pillows-to-be out of the closet. Tomorrow I'll turn the Christmas star friendship blocks into three more pillows. I'm out of pillow forms so will need to head to either JoAnn's or Fabric Depot - I sure hope they are on sale. Then all that will remain of these is the collection of Halloween panels. Pillow forms that small aren't available, but I've got a case of stuffing in the attic that will fill homemade forms just fine - a great way to use scrap batting!

More mindless sewing

Thanks for all the well wishes - I'm very slowly but surely starting to feel a bit better. I still have little energy for either activity or deep thought, so I've continued working on simple things.

I now have backs for every one of my finished quilt tops - that alone has given me a feeling of great accomplishment. The final top needing a back was a Christmas wall hanging made from friendship blocks given to me by current and past Threads - six blocks in all. I wasn't happy with how I set them together, and when I looked at the top yesterday I realized I'd never be happy with it. The six 12" blocks were set together in a boring two by three lattice arrangement - too big for a table runner and too long and narrow for a wall hanging. When I looked at them yesterday I realized immediately what the perfect solution would be. I spent last evening picking apart the seams, and tomorrow I will sew them into three Christmas pillows!

Today I shifted my focus to the spring exchange blocks I posted a few days ago. I'm happy to say they are now three finished pillows, and a trio of three small quilts that will be perfect hanging together in the hall next spring. It won't take much time at all to quilt and bind those three hangings - that will be my next hand project. That leaves only the clothesline block, which for now has been added to the drawer of orphan blocks.

Doing all this has given me a good sense of accomplishment - small projects are great that!

Missing in action

It's a good thing I'm typing this and not trying to carry on a conversation orally. At the moment I sound sort of like a stuffed up, croaky frog. My dear husband - gotta love the guy! - shared his cold with me last week. Started getting a sore throat on Wednesday, and by the weekend I was a washout in most every way that counts. Didn't even get dressed all weekend! Sunday he announced that after 3 weeks he thought he was finally feeling like himself again. I was glad to hear that, but at the same time hoped that I don't have to wait three weeks to feel better!

Needless to say I've not been accomplishing much in the way of sewing. Finished the three aprons I cut out several weeks ago for gifts - a good thing! Took all weekend and every ounce of energy I had, but they are done. After that I couldn't face anything requiring thought, so decided to make some quilt backs. Seemed like a good thing to do because it would (1) use up a bunch of stash, (2) take very little thought beyond some basic arithmetic with the help of a calculator, (3) get a bunch more tops one step closer to being finished quilts, and finally (4) sounded like something I could do with little or no energy. I'm happy to report that I now have completed backs for almost every flimsy in my sidebar list. I think there are only three or four left. Here they all are, hanging together with their tops in the closet in the longarm room, waiting their turn with Gandalf. The stash didn't go down nearly as much as I'd hoped - I still have more fabric than will fit on my shelves - but it's a beginning.

Looking on the bright side of things - being sick certainly helped my weight loss because I've not felt like eating much of the time. Fred lost 8 pounds while he was sick - 8 pounds he couldn't afford to lose. I've not lost nearly that much, but did weigh in yesterday morning two pounds lighter than the week before for a total lost of 24 pounds. I even found the energy to try on some of the clothes I've been saving and some of them actually fit!